Three Muslim students approached me after I had finished a speech at Harvard University. I was there to talk about the threat of radical Islam across the globe, as part of the Ethics and Public Policy Center's Program to Protect America's Freedom. The students, one man and two women, wore Western-style clothes and spoke English with little or no accent. They disputed my description of Islam as it's practiced in the Middle East, maintaining that al-Qaeda's version of Islam in no way reflects the Islam that is practiced around the world.

On Friday, the day French police killed the terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo, the liberal Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was publicly flogged in Jeddah for insulting Islam. The two cases are bookends. The terrorists, who apparently had links to al-Qaeda and ISIS, murdered 10 journalists in the name of Islam because the journalists "insulted" the prophet Muhammad. Badawi, a brave human-rights activist, was sentenced to 15 years by a Saudi court - and 50 lashes once a week for 20 weeks - because he critiqued the way Saudi clerics interpret Islam.

RE POPE Benedict XVI's comments about Islam: It amazes me how leaders in the Muslim world, political or religous, say whatever they want about whoever they want, but the rest of us worry about being politically correct. Islamic extremists want to kill us. When someone critizes them, they kill innocents all over the world. Too much of America has forgotten that horrible day on 9/11. Bill Newbold Philadelphia

Taliban insurgents beheaded 17 people at a party in southern Afghanistan on Sunday night. The attack may have been part of a power struggle between rival factions, but one government official said it was intended to punish the attendees for listening to music and dancing. Are music and dance prohibited in Islam? The prophet Muhammad made seemingly contradictory statements about the performing arts, providing justification for people on either side of this doctrinal dispute. According to some accounts, Muhammad promised that Allah would turn musicians into "monkeys and pigs.

IS PRESIDENT OBAMA an Islamophobe? Does he hate Muslims? Those pushing that lie to inflame Muslims are anti-West, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-democratic and anti-modernity jihadis. In this regard - and probably in this regard only - President Obama and Pamela Geller are on the same page. They are anti-radical Islam. Obama is careful with his words. Geller, co-founder of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, is not, often extending her disdain to all of Islam.

UNILATERALISM means going it alone, a disastrous mistake in an interlocked world. George W. Bush's brand has gotten us into a new Vietnam quagmire that merits consideration of his and Dick Cheney's impeachment. His contempt for allies who were acquired by far wiser presidents, his endangering our valiant troops without just cause, his attacking Saddam because he cannot find Osama, his use of conventional weapons of mass destruction against as-yet-unused chemical Iraqi weapons, his plan to "democratize" the entire Mideast, his inflaming of all the Muslim world against us, his putting deficits where surpluses used to be, and his illegal recourse in war in order to get re-elected truly warrant the impeachment of both.

KABUL, Afghanistan - A group of assailants shut down Kabul's airport for several hours Monday in a brazen predawn attack that shook the capital hours after Afghan President Hamid Karzai delivered a speech in which he implied that U.S. counterterrorism policies had radicalized Muslims around the world. Afghan police snapped into action moments after residents of the city awoke to thundering blasts about 4:30 a.m. At least seven gunmen, including two wearing suicide vests, had taken refuge in buildings under construction adjacent to the northern tip of the airport compound, which includes an international military base.

OVER THE PAST two days, the Muslim world has been rocked by a range of volatile incidents. First, Egyptian protesters stormed the U.S. Embassy, tearing down the United States flag and posting a flag saying, in Arabic, "There is no god but Allah. " Then a group of extremists targeted the U.S. Embassy in Libya, killing Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others. Of course, my first instinct is to focus on the human dimensions of this tragedy. Too often, as critics and private citizens, we jump right into our talking points and instant analyses instead of acknowledging the faces, names and stories of the people who died.

IT SEEMS likely we will get the war President Bush has been pushing for since well before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. We are already bombing strategic targets saying they shot at us first. We may have war for Christmas. Bush declared he would not risk the life of a single American soldier by trusting Saddam Hussein to keep his word. How many Americans and how many others in the Middle East will die in George Jr.'s war unless it is deterred somehow? Terrorism against Americans and Britons at home and abroad is likely to be multiplied by all-out an war on and and any occupation of Iraq.

Every new president flatters himself that he, kinder and gentler, is beginning the world anew. Yet, when Barack Obama, in his inaugural address, reached out to Muslims with "to the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," his formulation was needlessly defensive and apologetic. Is it "new" to acknowledge Muslim interests and show respect to the Muslim world? Obama doesn't just think so; he said so again to millions in his Al-Arabiya interview, insisting on the need to "restore" the "same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago. " Astonishing.

On Friday, the day French police killed the terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo, the liberal Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was publicly flogged in Jeddah for insulting Islam. The two cases are bookends. The terrorists, who apparently had links to al-Qaeda and ISIS, murdered 10 journalists in the name of Islam because the journalists "insulted" the prophet Muhammad. Badawi, a brave human-rights activist, was sentenced to 15 years by a Saudi court - and 50 lashes once a week for 20 weeks - because he critiqued the way Saudi clerics interpret Islam.

IS PRESIDENT OBAMA an Islamophobe? Does he hate Muslims? Those pushing that lie to inflame Muslims are anti-West, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-democratic and anti-modernity jihadis. In this regard - and probably in this regard only - President Obama and Pamela Geller are on the same page. They are anti-radical Islam. Obama is careful with his words. Geller, co-founder of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, is not, often extending her disdain to all of Islam.

RUSSELL CROWE went to meet the pope, but the pope said "No-ah. " Crowe and the makers of the big-budget film about the animal ark-ivist attended Pope Francis ' general audience yesterday but didn't get what they most wanted: a photo-op. Maybe Crowe will have better luck if he accompanies the Philadelphia delegation later this month. Crowe had lobbied hard for a papal thumbs-up for his film "Noah," and the ensuing publicity a Francis blessing would bring. The film has been banned in much of the Muslim world because of its depiction of the prophet Noah, while U.S. conservatives have complained the film takes liberties with the biblical account of the flood.

KABUL, Afghanistan - A group of assailants shut down Kabul's airport for several hours Monday in a brazen predawn attack that shook the capital hours after Afghan President Hamid Karzai delivered a speech in which he implied that U.S. counterterrorism policies had radicalized Muslims around the world. Afghan police snapped into action moments after residents of the city awoke to thundering blasts about 4:30 a.m. At least seven gunmen, including two wearing suicide vests, had taken refuge in buildings under construction adjacent to the northern tip of the airport compound, which includes an international military base.

JERUSALEM - President Obama's re-election has left Israel's prime minister in a bind. Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly has clashed with Obama and was widely seen as backing Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the American election. Yet in the coming months, Netanyahu will need American support more than ever as the Palestinians seek upgraded recognition at the U.N. and the world grapples with the Iranian nuclear program. "It seems like it is not such a good morning for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," Israeli Cabinet minister Eli Yishai told reporters early Wednesday as news of Obama's victory emerged.

CAIRO - Some anti-American Muslim clerics have cast the deadly Superstorm Sandy as divine punishment for a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad or for other perceived ills of American society. The remarks by some on the fringe brought a backlash from other Muslims who said it was wrong to relish the suffering of others. In Egypt, one radical cleric described the hurricane as revenge from God for the crude, anti-Islam film made in the U.S. that sparked waves of protests in the Muslim world in September.

Maker of deadly film set for court LOS ANGELES - A federal judge in Los Angeles will decide this week whether the man behind an anti-Islamic film that sparked violence in the Muslim world should be sent back to prison for violating his probation. Mark Basseley Youseff, 55, is expected in court Wednesday. He was convicted in 2010 of bank fraud. Prosecutors say Youseff had eight violations. Federal authorities say he was behind the film Innocence of Muslims , which led to the deaths of dozens, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens.

LONDON - A European court ruled Monday that radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri can be extradited to the United States to face terrorism charges, including allegedly trying to set up an al Qaeda training camp in rural Oregon. The decision ends a long-running legal battle and means that al-Masri, considered one of Britain's most notorious extremists, could be deported within weeks, along with four other terrorism suspects in Britain. Authorities in the U.S. have for years asked for Al-Masri and the others to be handed over, but the process had been delayed because the men raised human-rights objections.

Refusal to affirm freedom of speech No, the real outrage is the refusal of the Obama administration and of our government to vigorously affirm our belief in freedom of speech and freedom of the press, as confirmed in the First Amendment of our Constitution ("The real Muslim movie outrage," Sunday). As a result, the world does not know our beliefs, nor does the world know we are committed to defending these beliefs at any cost. Our beliefs may not condone stupidity, but they do validate our faith in freedom.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's "Day of Love for the Prophet" turned into a deadly day of gunfire, tear gas, and arson. Thousands angered by an anti-Muslim film ignored pleas for peaceful rallies and rampaged in several Pakistani cities Friday in battles with police that killed 19 people and touched off criticism of a government decision to declare a national holiday to proclaim devotion for the Prophet Muhammad. The film, which was produced in the United States and denigrates the prophet, has outraged many in the Muslim world in the 10 days since it attracted attention on the Internet, and there were new, mostly peaceful protest marches in a half-dozen countries from Asia to the Middle East.